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Sinking Lands, Damaged Infrastructure: Will Better Groundwater Management End Subsidence?

Sinking Lands, Damaged Infrastructure: Will Better Groundwater Management End Subsidence?

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, work continues on managing groundwater for long-term sustainability, as required by California’s landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). In January, water users in 21 critically overdrafted basins delivered their groundwater sustainability plans to the state Department of Water Resources. In this series , we examine the 36 plans submitted for 11 critically overdrafted basins in the San Joaquin Valley—California’s largest farming region, where … [more…]

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It’s Time to Plan for Drier Western Rivers

It’s Time to Plan for Drier Western Rivers

Three recent studies highlight how climate change will jeopardize the water supply from Western rivers. The best antidote, researchers say, is to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. | Illustration by Maddy Olson

A strange thing happens during particularly wet winters in California: farmers flood their fields. Never mind that crops are dormant and soil is already saturated — these farmers are more concerned about what lies beneath their land. Aquifers … [more…]

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Wall Street spends millions to buy up Washington state water

Wall Street spends millions to buy up Washington state water

Photo: Don Lundgren’s family ranch sits next to the Chewuch River. Lundgren hoped to sell water rights to Crown Columbia for potential use beyond the Methow Valley, in the distance. (Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times)

WINTHROP, Okanogan County — Follow the water and you’ll find the money.

That’s how it often works in the dusty rural corners of Washington, where a Wall Street-backed firm is staking an ambitious venture … [more…]

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Dwindling groundwater, ever-deeper wells could spell trouble for Arizonans

Dwindling groundwater, ever-deeper wells could spell trouble for Arizonans

Araceli Silva moved to her colonia near Yuma decades ago 27 years ago. She’s struggled with her wells, which have run dry more than once. A new study finds that wells that bring groundwater to the surface are being dug deeper to tap dwindling aquifers. (Photo by Maria Esquinca/News21)

PHOENIX – Wells are drying up because groundwater is being depleted, and that affects food production and access to drinking water. … [more…]

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Dirtiest week for water in EPA history

Photo: Dirtiest week for water in EPA history

Photo: © Getty Images

Before the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, our nation’s waters were in trouble. Lake Erie was virtually dead, the Cuyahoga River caught on fire, and the Androscoggin River in Maine was so polluted it peeled paint on nearby buildings. Many of America’s waters had become little more than lifeless, open sewers.

Nobody wants to return to the bad old days of polluted, dirty rivers. … [more…]